NYT: Olbermann wants back in at ESPN

3/4/13 12:47 PM EST

Keith Olbermann has expressed interest in returning to ESPN, but the network’s president says he does not feel “prepared” to bring the commentator back, according to The New York Times.

Olbermann — who worked at ESPN from 1992-1997 — recently reached out to ESPN president John Skipper and the two met for dinner, Skipper told the Times.

"I agreed to dinner with Keith because I assumed he’d be provocative and witty and fun to have dinner with, and he was indeed lots of fun," Skipper said. "We talked sports and politics, and we had a nice chat. He is very interesting."

“Clearly he was looking to see if there was an entry point to come back,” he added.

Skipper, however, told the Times that ESPN is “not an easy place to get back into” and "there are not that many successful examples of people who have come back." And after the two met for dinner, Skipper said, "at that point, there was no real appropriate place for Keith to come back, nor did I feel like I was prepared to bring him back."